Judge gives more time for plan to protect smelt

FRESNO, Calif. 
The federal government will have to rewrite a plan to protect the endangered delta smelt, but it will have two years to submit it.

The Fresno Bee reports that a federal judge in Fresno ruled on Wednesday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must rewrite the plan - known as a biological opinion - by the end of 2013.

The federal Endangered Species Act, which provides protection for the smelt in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, has triggered pumping restrictions on the amount of water available for farmers and urban users.

In December, U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger ruled that pumping water from the delta hurts the smelt, but the plan needed to be redone to better determine the restrictions' economic effects on farmers and other users.

Wanger left the existing plan from 2008 in place while the new one is being written.